{"id":660880,"date":"2026-05-10T01:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660880\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:12:18","slug":"legendary-australian-cowboy-troy-dunn-swaps-bulls-for-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660880\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Australian cowboy Troy Dunn swaps bulls for boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troy Dunn sits on the back verandah of his north Queensland cattle property, overlooking a valley of sugarcane, reflecting on his earliest days mounting up.<\/p>\n

As a nine-year-old, he rode his first calf in a rodeo at Capella in central Queensland.<\/p>\n

“He threw me over his head. I connected with his head and took a bit of bark off my cheek, and I thought, ‘That was a good way to have fun,'” he said.<\/p>\n

Dunn and his three brothers practised in between jobs on the family cattle property at Sarina, south of Mackay.<\/p>\n

“We were bucking them in the fog some mornings at 6.30 before breakfast. That’s where it all started,” he said.<\/p>\n

While feeding the dogs after a particularly good practice session, he decided he might be skilled enough to make a living from bull riding.<\/p>\n

“That was my idea \u2026 to be able to get out of the chores,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

More than 20 years after retirement, Troy Dunn is still the best bull rider to come out of Australia. \u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Career highs<\/p>\n

By the time he was 20, Dunn was riding professionally. Within two years, he won his first Australian title.<\/p>\n

Highlights include riding Chainsaw, the legendary Brahman-cross that was named Australian Bucking Bull of the Year for eight consecutive years.<\/p>\n

Canada and the USA beckoned and Dunn climbed the rodeo ranks there to ride the feared Red Wolf, a bull so wild it was involved in the death of rider Brent Thurman in 1994.<\/p>\n

He recalls visiting Red Wolf years later and, although calm with tourists, the beast began huffing and scratching the ground when Dunn approached.<\/p>\n

“He knew me. We were two-all, so we didn’t have anything up on each other,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Dunn<\/p>\n

The Golden Buckle awarded for Dunn’s 1998 world championship.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

Dunn was at the top of the competition leaderboard in 1998 when he competed in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Finals in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Despite being thrown off in the first round and stomped by the bull, dislocating his hip, he was crowned World Champion. He remains the only Australian to do so.<\/p>\n

“That was pretty amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Troy<\/p>\n

Troy Dunn rode notorious bull Red Wolf four times in his career. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The next contender<\/p>\n

Brady Fielder from Clermont in central Queensland, hopes to join Dunn as the second Australian to win the world title at the finals in Fort Worth, Texas, from May 7-17.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old is Australia’s best current performer on the PBR circuit and is ranked second on the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fielder is Australia’s current top rider in the PBR.\u00a0 (Supplied: Professional Bull Riders)<\/p>\n

“It has been an awesome season, it has been a heck of a journey and I’m thankful for the ending that I got. I’m feeling good going into the finals,” Fielder said.<\/p>\n

“It’d be a dream come true for me to be the second Australian to ever win that.”<\/p>\n

He said Dunn’s “words of wisdom” had stuck with him.<\/p>\n

“The will and the want to win \u2026 never let up on it and you’ll get it eventually,” Fielder said.<\/p>\n

\"Brady<\/p>\n

Brady Fielder is from Clermont in Central Queensland.\u00a0 (Supplied: Bull Stock Media)<\/p>\n

A new ring<\/p>\n

Despite suffering dislocations, concussions and a ruptured gut from a horn, Dunn said he never really got nervous before a competition.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t worried about it, it was just something I loved so much,” he said.<\/p>\n

What does make Dunn nervous is boxing, a sport he has resumed after a few bouts as a younger man.<\/p>\n

He got into it with friends to support a mate going through a rough patch.<\/p>\n

“It was a one-for-all and all-for-one-type thing,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n

\"Troy<\/p>\n

After retiring from bull riding, Dunn got back into boxing.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He’s competed in more than a dozen Master’s division bouts in the past eight years, and won silver at the Masters Boxing International World Titles.<\/p>\n

“Getting in the ring, for me, takes that anxiety to a whole new level,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The day of the fight, you’ve just got this sick feeling in your gut all day and you can’t eat.<\/p>\n

“Getting on bulls never bothered me that way.”<\/p>\n

He said boxing kept him healthy and was easier on the body.<\/p>\n

“You’re not getting knocked around, you’re fighting someone pretty much the same weight and age and experience,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’re not getting your limbs jumped on.”<\/p>\n

Dunn rode his last bull in 2005 and said he didn’t miss the stress of constantly wanting to win.<\/p>\n

\"Troy<\/p>\n

Troy Dunn grew up around central and north Queensland.\u00a0 ((ABC Tropical North: Liam McNally))<\/p>\n

He now runs riding clinics and encourages the next generation of “sticky lads” to chase their dreams if they think they have what it takes.<\/p>\n

“Do it with all your might,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You don’t have to be a world-beater \u2026 it’s the journey that matters.<\/p>\n

“[But] if you feel that you’re gonna be a world-beater, go at it with everything you’ve got. Put it all on the line. You’ve only got one shot, you’ve only got one life, so make it count.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troy Dunn sits on the back verandah of his north Queensland cattle property, overlooking a valley of sugarcane,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,215543,120693,44,90836,319295,2836],"class_list":["post-660880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bull-riding","tag-cowboy","tag-news","tag-rodeo","tag-troy-dunn","tag-world-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}